Very often program providers deliberately make the set up and maintenance of preferred channel lists inconvenient, requiring arcane programming, etc., because program providers are afraid they may be unable to push new channels into the market if people are given a simple, convenient way to select only the programs they like and thus ignore new channels coming to market. Such a convenience for viewers would make it more difficult for program providers to introduce new channels and programs into the market.
As a result, preferred channel lists are, to a certain degree, made inconvenient to create and use and are not emphasized a lot, because there is, for program providers, an inherent conflict between providing a good method for generating and using a preferred channel list and having the ability to push new content.